Sunday, March 15, 2009

Lady Shalott on Facebook

The Facebook user Lady Shalott has collected some wonderful galleries of images past and present, as well as an album of cultural references to the Tennyson Lady.

My favorite album, however, is her gallery of images from Howard Pyle's illustrated edition of The Lady of Shalott. I had seen a few images before, but didn't put two and two together and realize that this was a full illustrated book. Apparently it was, according to a listing on Amazon, "his first commission to completely illustrate a book. This title and "Yankee Doodle" were worked simultaneously by Pyle: both were early American experiments in color printing for children's books, an attempt to emulate the excellent flat color printing achieved by the great English color printer, Edmund Evans [see: PITZ p52]. Pitz calls Pyle's work in this florid Art Nouveau style, "an interesting period piece with more vigor and invention than most British illustration of the time."

9 comments:

Hi Grace! I love what you have done with your passion for pre-raph art. The Lady of Shallot is such a beautiful style. Thanks for the information about the cobweb forest...I am going to visit it as soon as I am done eating my dinner!! Thanks for visiting and stay tuned for the next act. For the final act, I will be asking my readers to submit their ideas for an ending. The winner will receive a give-away! Have a beautiful day, Anita

I've been reading your blog for a month or so now, and I truly appreciate the work you put in to provide the rest of us with such beauty! And now I have something for you: a website called La Couturiere Parisienne has a great many free (albeit highly advanced) historical patterns available for download, including a few Reform dresses on her Early 20th c. page: http://www.marquise.de/en/1900/schnitte/s1900.shtml Enjoy, and thank you!

I realized that I gave you the mispelling of the company that sells the lead for the windows. Here is their website address:

www.decraled.com

Good luck! I will take other photos around my home so you can see what else I have done with the stuff; it is a great solution to the expensive art of stained glass/leaded windows. It will give you the old world, medieval, pre-raph. look you seek!!!! Ciao, Anita

Lylassandra, what sweet words, thank you so much!! And thank you also for that link! I wish there were illustrations of the finished products with the patterns, like are provided on modern day ones, but perhaps setting out to create the outfit would be a grand adventure! :)

The Beautiful Necessity

This blog is devoted to all things Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts. The two movements began during the Victorian era, and celebrated a return to the aesthetics and simplicity of medieval times, as well as the romance of nature and chivalry.

The central tenets of the two movements are still very important today, perhaps even more so.